Post by Cindy on Jul 25, 2015 12:16:44 GMT -5
Many of us are going through trials and it often can seem that the trials are never ending because they've been going on for so long, or due to having one come right after another. I know that I've been going through that myself and it's almost impossible not to get weary of it all. Often we start to doubt our standing with the Lord and begin to wonder if we've failed Him in some way and are being disciplined; especially when it seems like literally everything that could possibly go wrong, does and when there seems to be no reason for it all.
While it's a good thing to make sure that there's no sin in our hearts, once we've asked the Lord to help us search our hearts and haven't found any reason for discipline, we then need to accept that and not keep questioning it. When we continue to doubt it becomes a sin and harms our relationship with the Lord, for we wind up questioning His love and goodness, and our relationship to Him.
As I continued my study of Jonah today, the Lord revealed something wonderful to me about when our trials seem to continue like this. I was in chapter 2 where Jonah had just been swallowed by the fish and was praying. That had to be a horrible situation for Jonah. Thrown into the ocean and expecting to die, which was bad enough, but then to find himself alive inside a fish (or whale) must have been even worse in some ways. It makes me shudder to think of it! He had no way of knowing how long he was in there until after he got out and was able to figure out how much time had passed since he'd boarded the ship. He didn't have a watch and no way to know if it was day or night. Those 3 days must have seemed like an eternity to him, especially since he had no concrete way of knowing that he would ever come out of there alive. While our trials may have lasted a lot longer in time then Jonah's did, I bet that emotionally, he was in the same place that many of us get to when they've been going on for a long time.
Jonah's reaction to it all is to pray, which is a good thing and one I'm sure we've all had to our own trials. But he goes further then that. If you read the chapter, you'll see that he never actually asks the Lord to save him or get him out of there, which I'm quite sure would have been the very first thing I would have done! Instead, he admits his sin, admits that he knows that God is in control and that everything that's happened to him was God's doing. He admits that God did it all in order to turn him from his sin and back to Him. Then he amazingly says that he knows that God has heard his prayer. Yet God hasn't done anything since having that fish swallow him. His prayer seems to follow his experience of being thrown into the ocean and the fish swallowing him, which he sees as God's mercy. But then, verse 8 seems quite out of place for all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Jonah seems to compare himself with people who worship idols. Let me quote it in context so you can see what I mean: ““When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.”” (Jonah 2:7–9)
As I talked to the Lord about it, I realized that it did make sense. Jonah was continuing to admit his sin and basically said, that he realized that he had been clinging to a worthless idol when he'd substituted his will and desires for God's and run away. He now realized that and was thanking Him for showing him the idolatry and all he'd forfeited by not clinging to the true God. That really shook me up, because I realized how often I've done the same thing when in the midst of unending trials. Let me make this more personal so you'll know what I mean. It seems like for years now we've been in a constant trial of hardship, not having insurance or making enough money to live on. While I've tried to remain strong and faithful, there have been times when I've allowed myself to get frustrated and stressed out about it all. Those are the times I'm disobedient and don't take my thoughts captive, and instead allow myself to dwell on all that's happened over the last years and all we've been through and have to do without. That goes directly against any number of the Lord's commands to us, and I know that. Yet, it still happens every once in a while. When I have allowed it to happen, I generally wind up whining to God and thinking of the things I want - it might be to buy gifts for one or all of my grandkids, or to get jeans for Bruce, or a book for me; and I'll generally throw in something that doesn't sound as selfish such as being able to pay our past due taxes or something like that. I also usually wind up trying to figure out ways to improve our situation. I'm not suggesting that the Lord doesn't want us to pay our bills or have those things, but those are my desires, my priorities, not His. Just as He'd given Jonah a command that he'd run away from, so He's given us commands that we at times run away from too. In this case, He's given us the command to be content with what we have, to not dwell on the past or what might or could happen in the future, but to keep our minds locked on today. He specifically commands us not to worry and to trust Him for our today's, tomorrows and even for making our past work out for our good and His glory. He also commands us to endure hardship patiently. Most of all, He commands us to rely on Him and not on ourselves or anyone/anything else.
The point is, when we start wallowing in self pity like I have at times, we're committing idolatry on top of everything else. When we do that, just like Jonah said, we give up or forfeit "the grace that could be ours." I'm sure you can see how we give that up without me pointing it out. Just to be sure that we don't think we're just giving up one thing though, let me add that God's grace includes many things such as His forgiveness, mercy, help, gifts, virtues, kindness, favor and friendship. In other words, we give up a LOT when we do that! That's what Jonah realized and so repented of his sin.
Back to what must have seemed like a very long time to Jonah to have to wait for God's answer to his prayer. We can all be sure that he wanted out of that fish like yesterday! I know I would have! We can also know that he was aware it would take a miracle for him to get out of it and for him to survive once he did get out. He had no way of knowing how God would get him out, much less, when or where it would happen. Yet I'm sure that these things were all on his mind and that he spent time wondering about them. I'm sure too that he wondered why God was waiting so long and how much longer he was going to have to be in there. Finally, he probably asked himself for the rest of his life, why it took God so long to rescue him.
And that's usually one of our big questions too, especially in times like this. I know I've wondered the same thing. I know that with a mere thought the Lord could send us money or give us gifts of the things we need, so why hasn't He? That and other questions like it often nag at us when we're going through a hard time for no apparent reason. During our ordeal we haven't closed our minds or hearts to Him, we've learned lessons He has shown us, and have tried to live His way. So what's taking so long??? We start to feel or even think at times that instead maybe God has abandoned us. I'm sure that thought probably crossed Jonah's mind as well as few times. We aren't told if Jonah ever figured out any particular reason why God allowed him to stay in that fish so long, but because we have His Word, we know at least one of the reasons He did, and it was a big one. Jesus would later use Jonah's experience as a sign to the unbelieving Jews that He would be resurrected, and when remembered by His disciples it would be fulfillment of prophecy. But poor Jonah didn't know that and probably never did. All he knew was that God waited an awfully long time to get him out of there.
Once recovered I'm sure Jonah understood some of God's message to him in the ordeal. We know he understood that everything is in God's sovereign control - absolutely everything. From the little tiny things that we barely notice if we notice them at all, to the huge miraculous things. He's in control of nations, governments, airplanes, ships, the ocean, trees, the fish, animals, and even us human beings as a group and individually. Nothing happens that isn't completely within His Hands and control, including the length of time we go through hardship, trials, grief, or whatever.
Even when I don't understand "why" or "why it's been going on so very long", I know I can trust my loving God and recognize that it really IS all for His glory and my good. I can be content, even in the midst of the stress of being unable to pay bills, or any other grief or hardship, knowing that the Lord is with me, He DOES hear me, and He WILL answer me and save me, although it may be in ways that are way beyond anything I could ever imagine. In fact, He's with me now and will comfort, help and strengthen me since I gave up my idols and turned to Him.
Over the years I've also learned that the Lord generally has more then one reason for the things He does and the things He allows in our life. Sometimes we can figure out one or more of the reasons with His help, but I doubt if we ever know all of His reasons. Our minds simply aren't advanced enough or capable of understanding things as deeply and thoroughly as He does. I've learned too that there are some times when I simply don't know any of His reasons and that's OK too. That's why He's God and I'm not. What I can know is that He loves me and I can trust Him, and that's really all any of ever needs to know. When I think back to the years when my children were young, I know there were times when they were disappointed because they didn't get something they wanted. They often didn't understand "why" they couldn't have or do something, but they knew I didn't withhold things from them out of spite and that I didn't tell them "no" just to be mean because they never doubted my love for them. Jesus told us that we need to be like little children in order to enter heaven. (Matthew 18:3) I have often felt that this was partly what He meant. We need to love and trust God even when we don't understand, just as my little ones trusted my love and provision for them... even when they didn't understand.
After reflecting on Jonah's long 3 days with the Lord, I felt encouraged and humbled at the same time. Our God loves us so much and wants only the best for us. We're so precious to Him that He's very aware of every tear we cry and wants very much to comfort u s and let us know and feel His love. It's not his desire that we be sad or stressed or that we go without, but sometimes those things are needful for many various reasons that we don't yet understand. When the going gets tough, we need to remember that we have a Father who loves us and we can let Him comfort us. We can rejoice too because although the world tells us to be strong, He tells us that when we're feeling all worn out and weak, like we just can't take another minute of this trial, that's when His strength, and His grace will pull us through it. We don't have to be strong. All we have to do is love Him and be loved by Him. That brings me to one of my favorite quotes by a pastor: "The challenge is to change from living life as a painful test to prove you deserve to be loved, to living it as an unceasing "Yes!" to the truth of your belovedness."
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
While it's a good thing to make sure that there's no sin in our hearts, once we've asked the Lord to help us search our hearts and haven't found any reason for discipline, we then need to accept that and not keep questioning it. When we continue to doubt it becomes a sin and harms our relationship with the Lord, for we wind up questioning His love and goodness, and our relationship to Him.
As I continued my study of Jonah today, the Lord revealed something wonderful to me about when our trials seem to continue like this. I was in chapter 2 where Jonah had just been swallowed by the fish and was praying. That had to be a horrible situation for Jonah. Thrown into the ocean and expecting to die, which was bad enough, but then to find himself alive inside a fish (or whale) must have been even worse in some ways. It makes me shudder to think of it! He had no way of knowing how long he was in there until after he got out and was able to figure out how much time had passed since he'd boarded the ship. He didn't have a watch and no way to know if it was day or night. Those 3 days must have seemed like an eternity to him, especially since he had no concrete way of knowing that he would ever come out of there alive. While our trials may have lasted a lot longer in time then Jonah's did, I bet that emotionally, he was in the same place that many of us get to when they've been going on for a long time.
Jonah's reaction to it all is to pray, which is a good thing and one I'm sure we've all had to our own trials. But he goes further then that. If you read the chapter, you'll see that he never actually asks the Lord to save him or get him out of there, which I'm quite sure would have been the very first thing I would have done! Instead, he admits his sin, admits that he knows that God is in control and that everything that's happened to him was God's doing. He admits that God did it all in order to turn him from his sin and back to Him. Then he amazingly says that he knows that God has heard his prayer. Yet God hasn't done anything since having that fish swallow him. His prayer seems to follow his experience of being thrown into the ocean and the fish swallowing him, which he sees as God's mercy. But then, verse 8 seems quite out of place for all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Jonah seems to compare himself with people who worship idols. Let me quote it in context so you can see what I mean: ““When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, LORD, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the LORD.”” (Jonah 2:7–9)
As I talked to the Lord about it, I realized that it did make sense. Jonah was continuing to admit his sin and basically said, that he realized that he had been clinging to a worthless idol when he'd substituted his will and desires for God's and run away. He now realized that and was thanking Him for showing him the idolatry and all he'd forfeited by not clinging to the true God. That really shook me up, because I realized how often I've done the same thing when in the midst of unending trials. Let me make this more personal so you'll know what I mean. It seems like for years now we've been in a constant trial of hardship, not having insurance or making enough money to live on. While I've tried to remain strong and faithful, there have been times when I've allowed myself to get frustrated and stressed out about it all. Those are the times I'm disobedient and don't take my thoughts captive, and instead allow myself to dwell on all that's happened over the last years and all we've been through and have to do without. That goes directly against any number of the Lord's commands to us, and I know that. Yet, it still happens every once in a while. When I have allowed it to happen, I generally wind up whining to God and thinking of the things I want - it might be to buy gifts for one or all of my grandkids, or to get jeans for Bruce, or a book for me; and I'll generally throw in something that doesn't sound as selfish such as being able to pay our past due taxes or something like that. I also usually wind up trying to figure out ways to improve our situation. I'm not suggesting that the Lord doesn't want us to pay our bills or have those things, but those are my desires, my priorities, not His. Just as He'd given Jonah a command that he'd run away from, so He's given us commands that we at times run away from too. In this case, He's given us the command to be content with what we have, to not dwell on the past or what might or could happen in the future, but to keep our minds locked on today. He specifically commands us not to worry and to trust Him for our today's, tomorrows and even for making our past work out for our good and His glory. He also commands us to endure hardship patiently. Most of all, He commands us to rely on Him and not on ourselves or anyone/anything else.
The point is, when we start wallowing in self pity like I have at times, we're committing idolatry on top of everything else. When we do that, just like Jonah said, we give up or forfeit "the grace that could be ours." I'm sure you can see how we give that up without me pointing it out. Just to be sure that we don't think we're just giving up one thing though, let me add that God's grace includes many things such as His forgiveness, mercy, help, gifts, virtues, kindness, favor and friendship. In other words, we give up a LOT when we do that! That's what Jonah realized and so repented of his sin.
Back to what must have seemed like a very long time to Jonah to have to wait for God's answer to his prayer. We can all be sure that he wanted out of that fish like yesterday! I know I would have! We can also know that he was aware it would take a miracle for him to get out of it and for him to survive once he did get out. He had no way of knowing how God would get him out, much less, when or where it would happen. Yet I'm sure that these things were all on his mind and that he spent time wondering about them. I'm sure too that he wondered why God was waiting so long and how much longer he was going to have to be in there. Finally, he probably asked himself for the rest of his life, why it took God so long to rescue him.
And that's usually one of our big questions too, especially in times like this. I know I've wondered the same thing. I know that with a mere thought the Lord could send us money or give us gifts of the things we need, so why hasn't He? That and other questions like it often nag at us when we're going through a hard time for no apparent reason. During our ordeal we haven't closed our minds or hearts to Him, we've learned lessons He has shown us, and have tried to live His way. So what's taking so long??? We start to feel or even think at times that instead maybe God has abandoned us. I'm sure that thought probably crossed Jonah's mind as well as few times. We aren't told if Jonah ever figured out any particular reason why God allowed him to stay in that fish so long, but because we have His Word, we know at least one of the reasons He did, and it was a big one. Jesus would later use Jonah's experience as a sign to the unbelieving Jews that He would be resurrected, and when remembered by His disciples it would be fulfillment of prophecy. But poor Jonah didn't know that and probably never did. All he knew was that God waited an awfully long time to get him out of there.
Once recovered I'm sure Jonah understood some of God's message to him in the ordeal. We know he understood that everything is in God's sovereign control - absolutely everything. From the little tiny things that we barely notice if we notice them at all, to the huge miraculous things. He's in control of nations, governments, airplanes, ships, the ocean, trees, the fish, animals, and even us human beings as a group and individually. Nothing happens that isn't completely within His Hands and control, including the length of time we go through hardship, trials, grief, or whatever.
Even when I don't understand "why" or "why it's been going on so very long", I know I can trust my loving God and recognize that it really IS all for His glory and my good. I can be content, even in the midst of the stress of being unable to pay bills, or any other grief or hardship, knowing that the Lord is with me, He DOES hear me, and He WILL answer me and save me, although it may be in ways that are way beyond anything I could ever imagine. In fact, He's with me now and will comfort, help and strengthen me since I gave up my idols and turned to Him.
Over the years I've also learned that the Lord generally has more then one reason for the things He does and the things He allows in our life. Sometimes we can figure out one or more of the reasons with His help, but I doubt if we ever know all of His reasons. Our minds simply aren't advanced enough or capable of understanding things as deeply and thoroughly as He does. I've learned too that there are some times when I simply don't know any of His reasons and that's OK too. That's why He's God and I'm not. What I can know is that He loves me and I can trust Him, and that's really all any of ever needs to know. When I think back to the years when my children were young, I know there were times when they were disappointed because they didn't get something they wanted. They often didn't understand "why" they couldn't have or do something, but they knew I didn't withhold things from them out of spite and that I didn't tell them "no" just to be mean because they never doubted my love for them. Jesus told us that we need to be like little children in order to enter heaven. (Matthew 18:3) I have often felt that this was partly what He meant. We need to love and trust God even when we don't understand, just as my little ones trusted my love and provision for them... even when they didn't understand.
After reflecting on Jonah's long 3 days with the Lord, I felt encouraged and humbled at the same time. Our God loves us so much and wants only the best for us. We're so precious to Him that He's very aware of every tear we cry and wants very much to comfort u s and let us know and feel His love. It's not his desire that we be sad or stressed or that we go without, but sometimes those things are needful for many various reasons that we don't yet understand. When the going gets tough, we need to remember that we have a Father who loves us and we can let Him comfort us. We can rejoice too because although the world tells us to be strong, He tells us that when we're feeling all worn out and weak, like we just can't take another minute of this trial, that's when His strength, and His grace will pull us through it. We don't have to be strong. All we have to do is love Him and be loved by Him. That brings me to one of my favorite quotes by a pastor: "The challenge is to change from living life as a painful test to prove you deserve to be loved, to living it as an unceasing "Yes!" to the truth of your belovedness."
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
!!
